Oracle Blog

(Masood Mortazavi)

Writing about Soccer

Rob Hughes must be one of the most engaging soccer writers, at least as far as the English speaking world is concerned. Here are four paragraphs from a recent story he wrote for International Herald Tribune ("Tale tales and high finance in Champions League"):

Get through to the next round, get back some of the wounded, rediscover
the appetite eroded through a World Cup year, and Barça could yet be
the team to beat in the Champions League.

Meanwhile, the only other fresh qualifier Wednesday was Inter Milan,
which drew the largest audience of the night, 69,001, and saw off
Sporting Lisbon with a solitary goal from Hernán Crespo.

This Argentine, seldom happy when he was in London with Chelsea,
which still owns his registration, lives on the edge of the offside
trap.

On Wednesday, he had an early goal strike overruled by a linesman's
flag, but when the ball was played through at 36 minutes, Crespo sped
beyond the defense and venomously struck the ball low past the
advancing goalkeeper.

A stunning finishing, a goal that stood, and if there was again the
question of whether he was marginally offside, he deserved to be the
match winner.

If that's an example of his English, the only 'engaging' he needs be doing is with his schoolteacher. (Cringeworthy Americanisms aside, "a stunning finishing" is just bad writing on either side of the pond!)

O.K. I didn't say he was a poet. I also needed to say he is a good soccer writer, with the emphasis on the "soccer" ... but then there are people who write about soccer in all kinds of other languages. In English, I think he writes pretty good things about soccer. He is not a poet, I gather you saying. That's OK.